Fish Creek — In the late 19th century, a wide-eyed boy goes to sea and becomes a man. During World War II, a young woman learns how to weld and discovers a resilience she didn't know she had. Somewhere on Green Bay, two lonely fishing guides finally lose their fear and find each other.

Those are the stories being staged this summer at American Folklore Theatre, where scandalously cheap ticket prices allow an entire family to enjoy original musicals that combine G-rated entertainment and big-hearted, often sophisticated explorations of adult themes — all of it unfolding outdoors, in the woods and under the stars in Door County's Peninsula State Park.

That sylvan setting plays a vital role in "Windjammers," written by Robin Share (book and lyrics) and Clay Zambo (music and lyrics). Set in 1876, during the heyday of the Great Lakes schooner, "Windjammers" is making its maiden voyage this summer, with AFT veteran Molly Rhode at the helm as director and choreographer.

Skylight Music Theatre's Lisa Schlenker has designed the set, transforming the AFT stage into a great sailing vessel, complete with rigging and sails. Add the wind rustling through the surrounding trees and it's easy to imagine the men on stage as a shipping crew, riding the waves and hoping not to join the 7,000 wrecks and 30,000 bodies at the bottom of the Great Lakes.

That crew includes the young and impressionable Boyo (Nathan Fosbinder), who is book smart but must learn how to read the world. Jackie (Chad Luberger), his gruff but tenderhearted captain, can read men's hearts, but is also illiterate. The two will bond as they teach each other.

Two recognizable types round out Jackie's crew. Fred (Doug Mancheski) knows Lake Michigan better than any man alive, but he is frequently drunk, depressed or both. The hearty but superficial Nate (Chase Stoeger) is addicted to women rather than liquor; he has one in every port. In an overused joke, he can't remember any of their names.

Costumed by Karen Brown-Larimore in rich blues evoking the Great Lakes, four more actors play the women left ashore. "Windjammers" sails against formidable headwinds when trying to bring them aboard and make them part of this seafaring story.

Only one of the four — Jennifer Shine, playing a jilted fiancée trying to rebuild her life — is given enough room to shape a character; even she must overcome a far-fetched plot to establish credibility as someone falling in love all over again. She succeeds, wonderfully, conveying the repressed longing of a warm woman with a lot to offer, if she could only find the right man.

The men fare a bit better; at its core, "Windjammers" is their story.

Together, they sing of sailors' quirky superstitions and weather a fierce squall — strikingly choreographed by Rhode, who uses the women, waving blue scarves, to embody the rising waters threatening to drown them.

Individually, Fosbinder's Boyo sings beautifully about how he is changing. Mancheski — justly known for his comedic gifts — stretches himself as Fred, peering through another drunken haze to admit he is utterly adrift on Lake Michigan, despite having known it so long. Luberger gives us a winning captain who is seemingly stern, stiff and sure but also shy, sheepish and soft.

But good as some portions of "Windjammers" are when considered separately, neither they nor this show ever fully come together. "Windjammers" wants to be a full-fledged book musical, but it often feels like a collection of shanties with a tacked-on storyline. Caught betwixt and between, it winds up becalmed, drifting toward port without a narrative compass.

Honoring the Greatest Generation

Last staged at AFT in 2006, "Loose Lips Sink Ships" is also divided between men at sea and those left behind, but this time the focus is on the home front, where women entered factories in droves after Pearl Harbor, making the ships, planes and tanks that transformed Depression-era America into Roosevelt's Arsenal of Democracy.

While writing the book and lyrics, Jacinda Duffin and Laurie Flanigan interviewed more than 20 people, including women who had worked in the Sturgeon Bay shipyards where much of "Loose Lips" is set. It shows. All of the characters in "Loose Lips" ring true, and James Kaplan's terrific score adds emotional heft to their stirring, sometimes heartbreaking story.

"Loose Lips" revolves around Roxie Tachovsky (Rhode) and Anne Hillstrom (Shine), both of whom become welders after the men down their tools and pick up weapons.

Roxie is a natural; even before donning pants and a welder's helmet, she works in the shipyard's personnel office and holds her own with the men, regularly cleaning their clock at the poker table and giving as much guff as she gets. Straddling the line between puckish and acerbic, Rhode is perfect for the role.

Anne is another story.

When the bombs fall on Hawaii, Anne is on the cusp of marrying Jack (Luberger) — never questioning his view that a woman's place is in the home. We first meet her as a perfectly still porcelain doll being fitted in her mother's wedding gown — par for the course, with a woman holding her breath and trying to squeeze into a vanished past rather than striding into the future.

All that changes once Anne becomes a welder, and Shine sketches a compelling dramatic arc as we watch Anne grow, assuming a quiet confidence that never feels forced. As she does in "Windjammers," Shine does a remarkable job of staying within herself, allowing a change in her carriage, the determined set of her jaw or her expressive eyes to do all the talking.

Like Rhode, Shine can also sing; the two are great together in "Look at My Heart," a duet in which they express their surprise and pride in how they have changed and who they have become.

That theme carries over to "Read Between the Lines," in which Rhode and Shine are joined by the company — factory coworkers, uniformed men in the South Pacific and two adolescents falling in love — in a gorgeously harmonized tableaux, effectively staged by director and choreographer Pam Kriger.

In allowing each character to sing and stand alone while also illustrating what they share, "Read Between the Lines" is a microcosm of this show as a whole; "Loose Lips" gives all of its characters their moments, and the AFT cast makes every one of them count.

I won't soon forget watching a bashful bachelor (Lee Becker) using a sock puppet to reveal his feelings. A young airman (Teddy Warren) confessing in a letter how scared he is. His sweetheart (Kiersten Frumkin) plaintively singing how much she misses him. A smitten sailor (Chase Stoeger) joyously spelling out his newfound love through signal flags.

As some of these examples suggest, "Loose Lips" has its lighter moments; one could add a fun jitterbug scene, Stoeger pretending to be a duck and a slinky number in which Rhode gets to air her pipes.

But at its heart, "Loose Lips" is a poignant and emotionally complex homage to the men and especially the women of what we rightly remember as the Greatest Generation. Forget the beaches, fish boils and cherry pies. This show is reason enough to go north.

Fishing with Shakespeare

Rounding out the AFT season is "Muskie Love," which debuted in 2004 as the first AFT musical created by regular collaborators Paul Libman (music) and Dave Hudson (book and lyrics). This year's rendition brings back all but one of the cast members from AFT's most recent staging of "Muskie" in 2009; then and again now, Kriger directs and choreographs.

"Muskie" is loosely modeled on Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing," now set along the Door County shores of Green Bay.

The quarrelsome pair of Beatrice and Benedick have become rival fishing guides Bea (Rhode) and Ben (Jeffrey Herbst). Young lovers Claudio and Hero are now Ben's assistant Claude (Stoeger) and Sarah (Susie Duecker), daughter to Roy (Mancheski), who owns a fishing shop.

Bea and Ben spar far too often — and with way too much zest — to dislike each other as much as they claim they do. But they've been pretending for so long that they've lost track of how they truly feel. Rhode and Herbst do a good job conveying this state of arrested development; he looks puzzled and she appears wistful as they try to understand why they're not happier.

It's Mancheski's hilarious, deadpanning Roy who comes to the rescue, using his fishing rod as a magic wand to reel this bickering pair in. It's a treat to watch this Bea and Ben fight their obvious attraction like the tough old muskie they are — even as Rhode and Herbst give us a sense of how much is on the line, for two people who desperately need to land in the same boat.

Meanwhile, Roy is also sprinkling pixie dust over Claude and Packer-crazed Sarah, whose onetime allegiance to Brett has undergone a makeover for this year's version of the show. It's all too much for DNR Doug (Becker) — a cross between the arch villain and the bumbling constable in "Much Ado" — who also loves Sarah and therefore hates Claude.

DNR Doug's ham-handed efforts to separate the young lovers — in which a pair of precious Packer tickets features prominently — all go bust. Conversely, this show is a whopping success, prompting an audience ranging from kids to retirees to give it an enthusiastic standing ovation on the night I attended.

As that rousing sendoff suggests, "Muskie" — like so many AFT shows — manages to hook everyone, without feeding us chum or resorting to the lowest common denominator to be catching. I can't think of another theater company that's anything like it, and while fond memories of "Muskie" may be prompting my remarks, the magic cast by AFT is no fish story.

IF YOU GO

American Folklore Theatre's summer season of performances continues through Aug. 24 in Door County's Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek. For schedule and ticket info, visit www.folkloretheatre.com or call (920) 854-6117.

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Keep up with the art scene and trends in urban design with art and architecture critic Mary Louise Schumacher. Every week, you'll get the latest reviews, musings on architecture and her picks for what to do on the weekends.

E-mail Newsletter

Keep up with the art scene and trends in urban design with art and architecture critic Mary Louise Schumacher. Every week, you'll get the latest reviews, musings on architecture and her picks for what to do on the weekends.